5 Ways to Decorate Your Dorm to Promote Learning

If you're a college freshman moving into a dorm room for the first time, consider doing a few special things to make your dorm as conducive to learning as possible. Here are our top five tips.

You do a lot of different things in your dorm room: sleep, eat, socialize, watch TV, and (hopefully) study. We don't deny that all of these things are important, but since you are at college to learn, you might want to decorate your dorm room in a way that encourages you to sit down and get to work. Here are our suggestions for five ways to decorate your dorm to promote learning.

1. Organize your Desk

If you're anything like us, you want to spend time in a place more if it's nice and pretty. Since you'll be spending a good chunk of your study time at your desk, it's a good idea to take some time to make your desk look organized and appealing. Make sure all the necessary supplies, pens, notebooks, books, etc., are within reach and easy to find. Put up some encouraging images and words of wisdom. Utilize your drawers to avoid clutter. Because, after all, isn't it easier to put your nose to a grindstone when it's aesthetically appealing?

2. Decorate in Orange

According to feng shui, orange helps strengthen focus and concentration. Not only that, but it also encourages creativity. Since the color is so bold and bright, it promotes adrenaline, keeping you alert and awake when pulling the inevitable all-nighter every so often. Convinced you need some orange in your life? Think about starting with a poster, curtains, or throw pillow in the shade. A little will go a long way.

3. Use Plants

Plants are a great way to decorate a dorm room. They bring life (literally) into a small, cramped space, and they can even help you with your studies. According to research done at the Royal College of Agriculture and Texas A&M University, plants help with attentiveness and creativity. We recommend plants that thrive without too much attention or sunlight because, let's be honest, it's way too easy to forget to water. Try out a corn plant, English ivy, or peace lily.

4. Minimize Distractions

Sometimes, when you're struggling to focus on an essay or textbook, your mind can wander, looking for things to distract it. For that reason, we recommend you hide any shiny things that you might be tempted to play with. Things like snacks, sudoku books, and coloring books are best stored somewhere where you won't catch them out of the corner of your eye.

5. Find Quiet

Dorms are noisy places. Even if you don't have a roommate who laughs out loud while watching Netflix in bed (lucky you!), noise streams in from the halls, neighboring rooms, and other floors, especially if you're trying to study during a night or weekend. To help mitigate some of that unwanted sound, keep earplugs or noise cancelling headphones in an easy-to-access place in your room. It might also help if you have posters and tapestries on your walls to help absorb some of that noise.

How are you planning to decorate your dorm room? Let us know on Twitter @studydotcom.

Looking for a way to earn online college credit faster and cheaper? Check out Study.com's College Accelerator.